You see a lost child in a shop. What would you do?

John_D80 · 27-04-2015 11:30PM #1

You're picking up a few bits in the drapery section in Dunnes when you notice a small child (estimate 2 and half years old, walking but not really talking age, if you know what I mean) that appears to be lost. The child is not yet showing any signs of distress but is obviously searching for its mother and there are no other adults in the immediate vicinity. It's a quiet Tuesday morning.

What would you do in this situation??

There are no staff members nearby so if you want to alert the staff to this, you will have to leave the area where the child is and leave the child alone.

Would you approach the child and try to help him find his mother??

Keep your distance from the child but keep him in your field of view until he finds his mum??

Or something else??

A friend of mine found himself in the awful situation recently of being accused of attempting to abduct a child that he had seen wandering alone through Dunnes. Just as he was about to pick the child up to bring him to find his mother she appeared and started screaming at him. Guards were called etc. and he ended up having to explain himself for over an hour before he was allowed to go on his way.

Links234 · 27-04-2015 11:31PM

Woo hoo! free child!

Sunday roast sorted

Flood · 27-04-2015 11:31PM

Was it racing gear you were buying op?

John_D80 · 27-04-2015 11:32PM

Flood wrote: »

Was it racing gear you were buying op?

Racing gear??

Stheno · 27-04-2015 11:34PM

I'd ignore them nothing to do with me
and I've no interest dealing with hysterical parents accusing me of all sorts
and tbh if they lost their child they are craps parents

fedor.2. · 27-04-2015 11:35PM

Stheno wrote: »

I'd ignore them nothing to do with me
and I've no interest dealing with hysterical parents accusing me of all sorts
and tbh if they lost their child they are craps parents

Wow

token101 · 27-04-2015 11:36PM

Just go tell a staff member. It's not that difficult really.

John_D80 · 27-04-2015 11:38PM

token101 wrote: »

Just go tell a staff member. It's not that difficult really.

But to do so you would have to leave this child unattended, possibly leaving it open to abduction/danger, as was mentioned in the original post.

deco nate · 27-04-2015 11:39PM

Simple, just shout to anyone around to call a member of staff. If no one is around, still shout out.. Otherwise get you're phone out And call the cops/store and report it.

Peregrine · 27-04-2015 11:41PM

If there are no staff members around, just call the Guards yourself and say there's a lost child in the store. What's so difficult?

Ally Dick · 27-04-2015 11:42PM

I'd have to call a woman for assistance, as I don't want to be accused of being Gary Glitter

Carlos Orange · 27-04-2015 11:43PM

Not really any upside to getting involved so I wouldn't.

It isn't really a great question since part of that is just the bystander effect. A better question is late at night on an empty street or anywhere where there aren't many people around.

moc moc a moc · 27-04-2015 11:44PM

John_D80 wrote: »

There are no staff members nearby so if you want to alert the staff to this, you will have to leave the area where the child is and leave the child alone

He's in Dunnes, not feckin' Baltimore. Go find a staff member.

whatdoicare · 27-04-2015 11:46PM

Call the store and ask for customer service - easy.

Hang around until someone comes but don't approach the child, just keep an eye on them.

I'm a woman and a mother and I'd still not go near a child that wasn't mine but at the same time I'd never leave them to their own devices.

The mam must have been frantic and your poor friend got the brunt of it, poor guy.

John_D80 · 27-04-2015 11:47PM

moc moc a moc wrote: »

He's in Dunnes, not feckin' Baltimore. Go find a staff member.

Very insightful, thanks. The point was that in order to do this he would have had to leave the child alone. In the meantime, child could have been snatched or walked out of the store into traffic.

deco nate · 27-04-2015 11:47PM

https://m.youtube.com/results?q=dave chappel baby&sm=1

HEY, you... Yea you baby, what you doing out here at 3 in the morning?
Baby.. Bitch I'm working!!

Oh ****!! OK I'll take a dime bag...

Iwasfrozen · 27-04-2015 11:48PM

You see a lost child in a shop. What would you do?

Honestly nothing, I'd wait to see if someone else helped. There's such a taboo about men approaching children these days I wouldn't want to be accused of anything. Sad but that's the reality.

Smiles35 · 27-04-2015 11:49PM

In the clothes section? Get on all fours and show the child how to find their folks feet by looking under the rails..

27-04-2015 11:51PM

Lay a trail of jelly babies to lost and found.

Stheno · 27-04-2015 11:51PM

fedor.2. wrote: »

Wow

Not wow I'm not going to be accused of anything by an overwrought parent who can't mind their kid

Sleepy · 28-04-2015 12:00AM

Honestly, I'm reluctant to help these days. Society has allowed misandrists to portray all men as rapists and child molestors and this is the result.

I'll sometimes help a lost child if I have my own kids with me but if I'm on my own, the child would need to be in immediate danger of being hit by a car or similar before I'd get involved.

PandaPoo · 28-04-2015 12:03AM

Take it by the hand and keep an eye out for the parent while heading to customer service!

Wouldn't worry about looking like a creep, maybe because I'm female, just wouldn't occur to me. If my son was lost and someone took his hand to walk him through the store that's fine by me, picking them up is a bit of a no no I think

crybaby · 28-04-2015 12:03AM

This happened to us recently when we were out and about in a massive shopping mall here in Bangkok. The kid was younger than 2 as he couldn't speak and was just strolling around the place, after about five minutes of us and a waitress from a nearby restaurant trying to get him to show where his mum might be, she came casually up to find him showing no signs no stress, panic or even gratitude about the situation.

Very odd how someone could let anyone at that age get out of their sight. Take the child to a staff member in the shop and ask them to have an announcement made over the PA system, I could not care two ****s what anyone would think of me in that situation as I would know I am doing the right thing.

Stheno · 28-04-2015 12:04AM

Sleepy wrote: »

Honestly, I'm reluctant to help these days. Society has allowed misandrists to portray all men as rapists and child molestors and this is the result.

I'll sometimes help a lost child if I have my own kids with me but if I'm on my own, the child would need to be in immediate danger of being hit by a car or similar before I'd get involved.

I'm female and have no kids, I'd still not go near them

Canis Lupus · 28-04-2015 12:09AM

I posted in a similar thread in the past that I was at the beach the one day and a kid was bawling, clearly lost and being ignored by everyone passing by. Just as I was about to go help a woman stopped and helped the child.

And there was I breathing a sigh of relief not because I didn't have to 'deal' with the situation but because as a male I was uncomfortable approaching a lost child for exactly the reason mentioned in the OP. I didn't want to be accused of anything sinister...

It's fair to say that's my hang up but I think it's also a very real concern.

deco nate · 28-04-2015 12:14AM

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I posted in a similar thread in the past that I was at the beach the one day and a kid was bawling, clearly lost and being ignored by everyone passing by. Just as I was about to go help a woman stopped and helped the child.

And there was I breathing a sigh of relief not because I didn't have to 'deal' with the situation but because as a male I was uncomfortable approaching a lost child for exactly the reason mentioned in the OP. I didn't want to be accused of anything sinister...

It's fair to say that's my hang up but I think it's also a very real concern.

I thinks it's most people's hang up, but what if you just walk on by and that night on the news you hear..... The way around you're fears is by calling out to others to help also.
That way you are not the Creep. And you can sleep well knowing you helped out

Mint Aero · 28-04-2015 12:18AM

I'd help and if the hysterical parent accused me of anything I'd slap them silly

Cold War Kid · 28-04-2015 12:20AM

Sleepy wrote: »

Honestly, I'm reluctant to help these days. Society has allowed misandrists to portray all men as rapists and child molestors and this is the result.

"Society"? Aren't you part of society? Aren't men who are depicted in this unfair way part of society?
Is it misandrists who have created this demonisation of men when it comes to children? I thought it was people who are obsessed with paedophiles.

I don't get the "either/or" stuff on this thread - I'd just go over to the child and bring them to the customer service desk, because I'm a woman and lucky enough not to have to deal with the stigma men face. But I don't see why a man wouldn't stay in the child's vicinity and alert a staff member or female customer. It's only a supermarket.

Sleepy · 28-04-2015 12:20AM

Stheno wrote: »

I'm female and have no kids, I'd still not go near them

For fear of potential accusations? Or out of a lack of desire to help?

alroley · 28-04-2015 12:22AM

I'd keep my eye on the child until it's mother/member of staff came. I certainly wouldn't go picking up someone else's child.

Smidge · 28-04-2015 12:22AM

I have "found" a few lost children over the years. Supermarkets, shopping centres, even at the zoo(that was a tough one, he was about 3 and a live wire

)
I just take the child by the hand and say "lets find your mum, ok?" and either contact a staff member to call on the tannoy or in the case of the "zoo child" look for the frantic screaming woman who was in full flight calling his name.

Anyone who would brand a parent who has had a child go astray in a shop once as a "bad parent" is a fool and clearly hasn't a clue. It can happen to the best of parents once and if all parents were honest they have had at least one incident in a shop/bank/public place(happened with our eldest when they hid in the fitting room right beside where we were standing, it was a game of hide and seek to them, never happened with the youngest ones though, we got wide to their dirty tricks

) of "oh fukc" and then the bottom falls out of your world for a few seconds till you see the little bugger hiding behind a display stand grinning like a maniacal lunatic at the "funny" they just got over on you

Edit; just to say OP, awful treatment of the person who returned the child in your post

You see a lost child in a shop. What would you do?

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